The consortium has two islet isolation facilities located in Melbourne (at SVI) and Sydney and performs transplants in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.
The program provides access to the procedure for people from Victoria and Tasmania, while Sydney’s Westmead Hospital provides transplants for people in NSW, ACT, Qld and WA, and the Royal Adelaide Hospital, to those in SA and NT.
The Consortium provides these services with funds from the Nationally Funded Centres Program, which is funded by State Governments.
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About islet transplantation
In recent years, islet transplantation has steadily progressed as an effective treatment option for people with severe type 1 diabetes
It is a procedure whereby insulin-producing islets are extracted from deceased organ donors and transplanted into a recipient’s liver where they produce insulin and in the best-case scenario, enable the recipient to become independent of the need to inject insulin.
Even those who do not become insulin-independent following the procedure have their hypoglycaemia corrected because of the improved control provided by the insulin made possible by the transplant.
Contacts
Professor Tom Kay can be contacted for clinical islet transplant information.
Dr Tom Loudovaris can be contacted for human islets for research.
Their contact details are below.
